All sectors in South Africa needed to pull in the same direction if the country is to attract investment which could break the back of unemployment.
This was according to Dennis George of the Federation of Unions of South Africa, the second largest trade union federation in the country, who is attending the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, as part of Team South Africa (Team SA).
George, who represents a portion of South Africa’s labour component of the triumvirate which includes government and business, said it was critical that the three main players worked together to send the message that South Africa was working and indeed open for business.
George said investment was the most important ingredient for inclusive growth.
“We are working together as a social partner team to ensure that we provide and market South Africa as a business area, where we are providing a supportive infrastructure for business to come, because we know there is a close link between business, and business that must prosper, and employment creation. ”
George said that the environment needed to be created for investors to come on board “because without investment, which is the most important ingredient for inclusive economic growth, we will not be able to address the unemployment situation in our country”.
He said the Team SA partnership had begun when meeting investors in New York, Boston and London last year, and also when meetings were held with the international rating agencies to prevent a downgrade.
“So this partnership now is growing, where we are also here, where we are meeting with the major roleplayers and it is a fantastic opportunity to get everybody under the same roof,” he said on the sidelines of the WEF meeting.
“This is the reason why we are so busy working, running from meeting to meeting, and that is very critical for South Africa and for our people, that the three main players, business, labour and government are working together actively to put South Africa upfront as being open for businesss. That is our main objective here.”
George said the focus was to boost investor confidence and to “remove obstacles and the constraints to business”.
Despite the conflicting interests, with business focused on returns, government on revenue and labour acting in the interest of the workforce, he said a stable environment to allow for investment would be to the benefit of all.
“No one wants to see a repeat of Marikana.”